Chapter 11: Part 11
Two more years of my new life had passed and I was now eight years old, it's hard to believe it, the memories of my past life were beginning to darken and were being replaced by the bright memories of my new life. A lot of good things happened, but the bad things didn't pass me by either, but I think we should start by talking about the not-so-big things.
I think one of my most unfortunate things was that I read almost all the books in the library, and the ones that were left could no longer give me new levels. So, I had to switch to other fields both related to medicine like pharmaceutics and neurobiology as well as unrelated like some programming languages and mechanics, even for the sake of decency started trying to wave my arms from side to side in order to get some skill in combat, not that the results were great, but at least now I don't just wave my arms around.
Through these simple actions I was able to raise my stats a bit and the new skills were raised to 20 levels and my own level reached 9, I don't know if that was a lot or not, but I was proud of it and my skills made me walk and stick out my chest, showing my pride because of the effort I put into it.
Even though learning the other non-medical skills was much more difficult, both in memorization and the ability to use that knowledge, I still studied them with diligence and didn't try to slack off and studied as hard as I did with medicine. So, the pride was well founded. I don't think I have any chance of getting any Ultimate yet, so with that I just had to wait.
I won't say I was able to make friends with the whole class, but my relationships got a lot warmer. Even exchanged a few words with Mukuro, but I don't think she likes me very much anyway, and I can't even think of why. And it showed me the "Relationship" tab in the system that had a "-5" relationship with her, but that was the only new notice, and there was nothing new with the others either, but maybe it was because of ------.
After all, she and I are pretty much friends, and the relationship line that says "104?» Question mark, question mark appeared in the relationship, from her relationship to me even the system got a shock because of what she caught the bug, it certainly scares me, but not that much and even a little nice. And the description didn't change much either. But doesn't that mean that her attitude toward me has crossed four digits.
I can't imagine how, but she was able to find out my date of birth, even though I couldn't find out her birthday and didn't know how she could, but she gave me different homemade things like a picture she drew me and they were pretty good and one time she even gave me a pink teddy bear, which looked pretty decent even though it was all patched up and you could tell it was her teddy bear that she gave me, and his description that showed up in my inventory, like all her gifts that I put away in his, said "Was made with love". So, it was always with me.
But I did spend quite a bit of time with her. Both in and after school we spent all the time together, she would go to the library with me and read some books that I wasn't paying attention to, we walked in the parks and sometimes I even had to play games with her, like catch-up or hide-and-seek. I was not against it, but I think I was too old for that, though the main thing was to be young at heart, and the rest was not important. And the only time we didn't spend together was at night, so we did spend a lot of time together maybe even too much because of my mother's death, as strange as it may sound, but after her death ------ became my closest person.
After my mother died ------ really did become the closest person to me as strange as that may sound. It was just that one morning I went into her room to give her care, and she was already lying there not breathing. Because of my medical skills, her care was decent, so the underlying causes of death from Alzheimer's could be ruled out, but in my case, she died of suffocation. I don't know what caused it, since I didn't have a chance to examine her body properly, and I called my guardian right away, but the dilated pupils and the purple hue of her face said so. So, she died because of an accident.
The guardian arrived almost immediately and it took about ten minutes, but in all that time I didn't even go into the room, because of my "Mind Gamer" I could bear it calmly, but I think I just mentally and physically just didn't want to go into the room and do anything, and I don't think there was anything I could do, but I took it as my weakness anyway.
After the guardian arrived, the medical workers came immediately after him and tried to do something, but they also realized that it was too late and just put her body in a bag and took her away from my apartment. After that the guardian left as well, leaving me alone, showing his attitude to me. Not that it bothered me in the least. So, after putting away the bed my mother slept on for decency's sake, I waited to see what would happen next.
As much as I hate to say it, I was relieved after that. An incredible weight had been lifted off my shoulders, both as a child and as an adult, and for everyone in general. I just felt good that my mother had stopped suffering and left, though not very peacefully, but at least she had stopped suffering. Yes, and I did not have to take care of her anymore and had more time to develop myself, no matter how selfish it may sound. But what hurt me the most was my mother's status, which simply disappeared, as if it did not exist and my mother did not exist.
For the next two days I didn't go anywhere and just stayed in my apartment, and I could tell it was mine, couldn't I? Not because of any sad feelings, I was ready for that, but because I had to wait for the guardian, who was supposed to tell me what to do next. And if he had come and I hadn't been there I was afraid there would have been a lot of unnecessary trouble, so the only thing to do was to wait. He came in two days later and in a calm voice told me to get dressed for the funeral.
So, after putting on my black pants and tucking in my shirt properly for the first time I went to the cremation, as sad as it sounds, there were only two people at the cremation, namely me and the guardian. So, after quietly waiting for the cremation to end, the guardian and I left for my empty apartment. After which, having said he would come back tomorrow, the guardian left.
The next day he returned with my mother's ashes in a black urn, after which we had an adult conversation, so to speak. It was that I was a big boy and I could take care of myself so he would send me money and no one was going to kick me out of the apartment, so I could live in peace. He also said he would come by once a month to check on me and to call me if I needed his help.
And he kept his promise of coming every month to check on me and sending money, not that it was too much, but it was enough to live on so I could afford clothes and food for ------. I didn't need to call him, of course, because I didn't need to, but I think he would have helped me. Maybe the kid would have been offended by that attitude of course, but I wasn't and I just understood that he had his own life and didn't have to babysit me, he had his own life. Even though it was his job.
After a three-day absence I finally went back to school, where I of course had a talk with Mori-san who talked about how sorry she was for me and my situation and if I needed any help at all, I could go to her. Well, ------ to my surprise, just hugged me tightly without saying a word, though I didn't understand why, because I had been away for a long time or because my mother had died, and the only thing I had to do was to hug her back. After standing for about five minutes in that position she only let me go because of the call.
About half a year passed after that moment and now sitting at my desk which was still near the window, I was looking at the seat next to me which was usually occupied by ------ which, to my surprise, was empty, for the first time in three years. And I wouldn't have worried so much if Mukuro hadn't gone missing along with her, and also if they hadn't disappeared three days ago. Knowing their situation and the fact that ------ didn't tell me anything about her absence, only bad thoughts crossed my mind.
So, with difficulty sitting in my seat until the end of the lessons I went home in order to think of something, or rather tried to go, but...
"Yasuke-kun." - came a female voice. "Come to me."
Yes. The female voice that distracted me from my plans was Mori-san voice, and the only thing I had to do was walk over to her desk and wait for her to stop writing something at her desk.
"You may have noticed that the last few days --------chan hasn't been in class." - Without looking away from her notes, she began.
"Yes." - What else could I answer.
"So, if you could take her the material she's learned." - she continued.
"А..." - I wanted to object, as it sounded too suspicious, but I was immediately interrupted.
"Also, you probably didn't know, and I certainly have no right to tell you, but -------chan has a sister and you know her is Mukuro-chan. So, if you could take the material to her too." - She said and handed me some folders.
"And you?" - I said and was already accepting that I would have to carry this and so I shoved those folders into my briefcase.
"I think you'd be best suited for this, and I don't have time for this." - there was a callous tone in her voice.
After patting me on the shoulder, she escorted me out of the classroom and closed the door behind me. It was suspicious, it was damn suspicious, and I can't even imagine why Mori-san wanted me to be the one to take that material, but I think it was for a reason. I'm not even sure if that's the norm of things, because I've never been sick and I didn't need anything like that. So, after looking at the address that was attached to the folders, I marked it on my map and went to the place I needed.
When I got outside and left the school grounds, I checked the system map again and went to the address I needed. About half an hour later I finally got to the house I was looking for, well how home, it was just a dump, there were bags of trash lying all over the place, various debris, and a few rusty cars were visible as well. I don't even know why there was an address associated with the place, and the first thought that came to my mind was that I had got the wrong address and came to the wrong place, but the system was telling me that this was the right place, so I had no other choice but to try and explore around it quietly.
As I got closer to this dump while trying not to step on the shards of glass and on the suspicious piles, I looked through the opening that could be called a door and carefully, with only one eye, looked at what was revealed to me. The first thing that caught my eye was a dozen people, among whom not a single child was visible, and their appearance told me what type of people they belonged to. Homeless. There were a few barrels with fires burning around them, and in the corners, if you could call it that, were placed boxes and newspapers, which from a distance could be mistaken for a bed.
After looking for a minute or so, I could not find any clues to the fact that there were children living here at all, so not to tempt fate, though I am her favorite, but I decided to walk away slowly, while carefully watching my step to avoid the most unpleasant situation. As I walked a few dozen meters away from this place, I felt a sense of anger at the way ------ had lived and what she had had to endure. As much as I wanted to punch the nearest wall with my fist, I knew it wouldn't do me any good.
So all I had to do was wait a few minutes to calm down and not do anything stupid. I guess my personal emotions were not so much inhibited by the system, since I was so angry about the situation. After standing with my eyes closed while leaning against the wall, I was finally able to calm down and start thinking about how to find ------ in this city.
The only and most correct solution that occurred to me after running down every alleyway several times and hoping by chance to find it was to use the system to look for it. Going into the map, I saw what I needed to see, which was that around my location was a yellow circle that circled about five kilometers and started from the school, and my little route from the school to the dumpster was grayed out to indicate that I was already in the area.
I knew that the system wanted me to walk all the way through the area and find it. It wasn't what I wanted, of course, but it was something that would help me and I had no right to complain, even though it would cost me an enormous amount of time. So instead of complaining I should have started looking.
(Passing the time.)
I don't know how much time I was passing exactly because I wasn't paying attention to what time it was when I started my search, but right now the clock was showing 2:48am and it was already pretty dark outside and a cold wind was running down my skin, but really, I didn't feel it and not because I was wearing a light jacket not to raise suspicions. I opened up about 60% of the map and still couldn't find where ------ could be. I went through every alleyway and looked in every corner I could find, and there was no sign of her or her sister.
But I don't think my presence would have had any effect on someone like her, so after stretching for decency and exhaling the air from my lungs I headed down another alleyway. After walking all the way down, it and finding nothing again, I was about to move on if I hadn't heard a low sniffing sound next to me, and as I walked toward it I saw her.
A girl with ------------- hair tied in two ponytails was lying between two trash cans, pressing her little knees together, while she tried to hug herself as tightly as possible, and in doing so she threw a pile of newspapers over and under her. Instead of a pillow, there was now some pile of rags thrown under her head. She was trembling all over, and again she had several new bruises on her face, which, however, had already healed a little.
I looked at this and really did not know what to do in this situation. I was just shocked and didn't know what to do or say in such a situation. So, the only thing I could do was put as much coldness on my face as I could in order not to show my emotions and did the first thing that came to my mind. I gently kicked her with the toe of my sneakers, but the only thing she did was just squeeze even harder. As much as I didn't want to, I kicked her a few more times and after his her ------- eyes opened abruptly.
Her stunned gaze was fixed on me, and then immediately she lowered it to the ground. Leaning one hand on the ground, she removed the stack of newspapers she had covered with the other and sat down on her knees, still without raising her eyes to me. After standing in that awkward position for a few more minutes, I knew she wasn't going to say anything and the conversation had to start with me.
"Don't you have anything to say to me?" - Despite my inner state, my voice was completely calm.
Without answering, she just shook her head from side to side.
"------!" - This time my voice sounded insistent.
"Strangers came and kicked me and Mukuro out of the house." - Her voice sounded quiet, and she was still hesitant to look up.
"You call that dump home?" - I knew the answer to.
She just nodded.
"Why didn't you say something to me? We could have worked something out together. I could have helped you or don't you trust me?" - In order to get honest answers, you have to piss the person off.
"No!" - she shouted too sharply, while looking at me, but immediately lowered her gaze. "I trust you. I didn't want you to know that I don't have a home. Everyone who finds that out starts insulting me and despising me. I didn't want to see that attitude toward me in your eyes."
"You have such a bad opinion of me?" - I still didn't know what I was supposed to say or do.
"No." - This time she said it calmly. "I just didn't want you to pay attention to me. After all, I'm a mistake. I shouldn't have appeared in this world, shouldn't have been born. I regret my birth and I wish I hadn't been born. No one needs me and it would have been better if I had died."
(From the author: these are Junko's canonical words. (Practically, only Yasuke added))
I couldn't see her eyes, but I was sure they were full of tears. Her voice was trembling and her hands were gripping her hair tightly as if trying to pull it out. She was clearly hysterical and seemed like a completely broken person to me now. I felt sorry for her...
"All right." - I didn't know what I was doing, but I knew what I had to say. Maybe she wouldn't even be what she was in the original. "I was probably just hanging around here until three in the morning just for the fun of it. And there's no way you could have been the closest person to me. I mean, that really does sound like a load of crap. It was really all about giving you the materials for school." - I threw the materials in front of her, about where her gaze should have been.
After stepping away from her a little, I continued.
"That's it. I've handed over the materials and I can go in peace. After all, that's all I've been looking for you for. Bye." - I said and started pretending to leave.
"N-no." - My ears picked up a quiet voice.
"You said something... I couldn't hear it." - Calm. Just tranquility.
"No. D-don't-don't go away." - it was too quiet again.
"What? What? What?" - I continued to tease her in order to get her out of shock. This could have been done with a slap on the cheek, but I think she'd had enough for today.
"Don't go please!" - it was still said quietly, but much louder than last time, but this time her voice sounded confident
Breathing the air out of my lungs, I started to take off my jacket and put it over my shoulders ------ and then I hugged her while pressing her to my chest. Her hands clutched at my shirt, and then a piteous cry was heard across the alley, followed by the sound of uncontrollable crying from the children. I began gently stroking her head.
She tried to let out all the pain and resentment she had on her soul, and after that she was already crying because she was happy. But at that moment a notification sounded in my mind, and I was afraid to check what had happened there again. After all, it was probably because of ------ and it was a renewal of the relationship in the system again. But better sooner than later, so without any embarrassment I opened the relationship tab, knowing that ------ was not yet in a position to analyze my system.
[------ -------] [Alive]
[Status: Depleted/Depleted]
[Attitude: #@$%@&%]
[Description: ";##%";% ;%"##;#"(*;??*:;#:%; "*";:%;) "*:?%";:%:]
It broke... It broke completely, which made me feel pretty creepy. Both "attitude" and "description" were completely broken and most likely couldn't properly define her relationship to me. I don't even know what you have to be to bring the system to this state, but I think she is the main antagonist of this world for a reason, who was completely obsessed with despair or maybe she was in an unstable state right now.
After holding ------ in my arms for another dozen minutes I let her calm down and the only thing I could hope for was that she wasn't faking it and it wasn't all a simple farce. It also frightened me that the highlighted area was still there. But here she was finally beginning to calm down and was just sniffling quietly into my chest and not saying anything, most likely afraid of what was about to happen next.
"Let's go." - came my voice in the alley.
"W-where." - she murmured quietly, ------, into my chest.
"Well, I told you I'd help you, and in this case, I might even be able to solve your problem. I live alone anyway, and I won't mind the company." - The last phrase was said as if at random.
"Really?" - Again, she murmured something into my chest.
"Yes. Let's go." - I said, pulling away from my chest ------.
Holding her at arm's length, I looked into her face as if to see if she was okay. After she nodded slightly, I took her hand, and we walked slowly out of the alley and back to my house, but before I did, she said.
"T-thank you." - Before we were far from the alley, her quiet voice was heard.
I just had to nod at her words, and we went quietly to my place and nothing even happened, and I thought now my luck or some other cliché, and we are to my happiness calmly reached the house. And here I am, bringing ------ into my apartment.
Watching ------ walk in with a degree of apprehension while looking around like a dazed animal brought a quiet smile to my face. She began to stomp in place while not knowing what to do and just looked at her clothes, which had a few wet spots on them. She was probably afraid of getting her clothes dirty, maybe I wasn't the most faithful homebody, but I liked to clean the apartment and did it quite often. So basically, everything shined because of the cleanliness, and there was a pleasant smell of cleanliness in the air.
"It's okay you can go through." - came my voice no longer in the empty apartment.
After my words, she slowly began to take off her shoes and then and carefully placed them in the very corner. Then she came up to me, trying to make as little noise as possible while still trying to be careful. The only prepared place to sleep in the house was in my room, so that was where I took her. When we walked into my room her eyes widened with shock and she started looking at me with incomprehension.
"You sleep here tonight, and we'll deal with everything else in the morning." - I closed her dumb question.
"А..." - she tried to say something.
"I'll sleep on the couch so you don't have to worry and you can go to bed in your clothes, I won't be offended. So good night." - I lied, since I wasn't going to sleep at all.
Before I left, I felt something catch on my sleeve and as I lowered my gaze I saw the hand ------ intercept my sleeve. Looking at it with incomprehension, I waited for an explanation.
"Yasuke-kun." - she said my name. At that, embarrassment sounded in her voice.
"The bathroom is down the hall to the right, second door." - I immediately understood.
"No!" - A tinge of red appeared on her cheeks from embarrassment. "I wanted to ask you."
"What exactly?" - I was interested.
After stomping on the spot for a while, she began to speak.
"You may not know this, but I have a sister. Her name is Mukuro, and she's in our class, too." - She spoke a little quietly as if she wasn't used to saying it.
"I've chatted with her a couple of times." - I already knew what she wanted to ask.
"And when those people came, we had to split up, and I don't know where she is. Could you find her and help her." - she said and looked at me with her -------- begging eyes.
"All right. You go to bed, I'll go find her." - I said confidently, since I was going to find her anyway.
Forcibly putting ------ on the bed I left the apartment without waiting for her to fall asleep. Although I said confidently that I would find her, I had no idea how or where I would look for her. The only thing I could think of was to go to the same area where I had been looking for ------ and continue exploring, hoping I would find her.
But finding it was one problem that could be solved, and if I was lucky, pretty quietly. The other problem was that I didn't know what to do after I found her. Where she would live wasn't even discussed, as I couldn't leave her on the street and put her in some shelter as I didn't want to share her with ------, so the only right solution was to put her in my house.
Also, the sleeping problem would be solved quite easily, since she would sleep on the other bed and I would "sleep" on the couch, as it were. But here was where the main problem arose. They were two girls, they certainly went through a rough patch, but if you remember ------ which was "Ultimate --------", they would both have to buy clothes. They will also need food, they are not as unpretentious as I am. They will also need other things for normal life like dental and hygiene supplies. And my money that I was given once a month, which wasn't very much, and my savings (which I didn't have) ran out at about the "They were two girls" point.
So, I didn't know how I was going to have to support three people on the money I was given out. Also, I still had to take myself into account in order not to stand out. But I think this will have to be decided after I find Mukuro and already think about it properly in the morning, because I understand that I definitely won't go to school today. So, doomfully exhaling, I opened the map again and started walking around every corner in the allocated area.
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